Don’t Judge Me! Oh Wait, that’s our job… Here is the criteria

The most important part to winning Startup Weekend Stamford is knowing what you will be judged on. Like running a marathon, it is important to know where the finish line is! This year we will be using Bill Kenney’s ScoreMyPitch, a product of Stamford Startup Weekend 2013.

Stamford Startup Weekend judging criteria is broken up into three sections. Teams are judged according to the following 3criteria (weighed equally):

Business Model The heart of it all. If you haven’t got the answers to these questions, you’ve spent too much time on frills & features and need to get back to the basics:
a. Who is your customer?
b. What is your core value proposition?
c. What are your key activities?
d. What are your revenue streams?
e. What is your cost structure?
f. Who/what are your key partners/resources?
g. What are your distribution channels?
h. What is your rollout strategy?

Customer Validation Have you taken the proper steps to ensure that the people who matter (your future customers) support and reinforce your assumptions? Think of Customer Validation as ‘evidence’ to back up the core structure of your ‘theory’ (your Business Model). The more feedback you gather (quantity), the more this feedback comes from your specific target market (quality), and the more you’re able to actually integrate this feedback into the Business Model and product development (execution), the better.

Execution The nitty gritty: what has your team been able to actually build over the weekend? Even the strongest of Business Plans are useless in the hands of those who can’t properly execute on them. Getting as far as possible in the development of your product/prototype not only helps give the Judges a tangible vision of what the final product could be, but proves your strength and skills as a team. This is what truly matters: investors don’t invest as in ideas so much as teams.

In the words of the greatest cartoon known to man GI Joe, “now you know, and knowing is half the battle.” Be sure to check out the website for additional details about the event, and do not hesitate to email one of the organizers.